Grand Mixer DXT

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This biography of a living person does not cite any references or sources. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living people that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately. (August 2009) Find sources: (Grand Mixer DXT – news, books, scholar)

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2008) (Find sources: Grand Mixer DXT – news, books, scholar)

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (January 2009)

GrandMixer DXT (formerly GrandMixer D.ST, born Derek Showard) is an American turntablist. "D.ST" is a reference to Manhattan, New York City's Delancey Street on the Lower East Side. He was featured in the influential hip hop film Wild Style.

Widely recognized as a pioneer, GrandMixer DXT is credited for being the first to establish the turntable as a fully performable and improvisational musical instrument (Alberts 2002). Especially important is his technique of altering the pitch of the note or sound on the LP record.

He is also credited with greatly helping to popularize DJing through his scratching on Herbie Hancock's single "Rockit" from the Bill Laswell and Material produced album Future Shock. The music video for "Rockit" was extremely popular on MTV.

He is interviewed in the 2001 documentary, Scratch.

It’s arguable whether hip-hop legend GrandMixer DXT is more greatly acclaimed for his collaboration with jazz great Herbie Hancock on the Grammy award winning song “Rockit,” on which he used the turntable as a musical instrument (which was the first time anyone had seen turntables used as an instrument with a live band), or, the elevation of hip-hop DJ’ing into Turntablism (which is the art of manipulating sounds using phonograph turntables) and introducing it into global and popular music. On one hand DXT was the part of the first pairing of hip-hop and jazz musicians resulting in the first time in history that a Grammy was awarded for a hip-hop recording. On the other hand his performance on the record was the first appearance of turntables used as a soloist instrument on a sound recording, and opened the studio doors for many others. The Grammy performance of “Rockit,” with Herbie on Clavitar and DXT on the turntables stopped the show. The win of the 1983 Grammys and sweep of the 1984 MTV Awards for Best Concept Video, Most Experimental Video and several other categories set the tone for a host of other collaborations which featured hip-hop and Turntablism, including Quincy Jones' 1989 “Back on the Block,” Run DMC and Aerosmith' “Walk this Way,” fusing rock and rap. However “Rockit,” remained the only Grammy winning hip-hop recording until Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince’s win in 1987. Paying homage those that opened the door for his evolution from drummer/keyboardist in a local band, to one of the most influential DJ’S known in the history of hip-hop, DXT says he was inspired to reach for the turntables after he attended a Kool DJ Herc party. Ever methodical and always the master whether student or teacher he perfected his craft. “I started practicing eight hours a day, but of course I still didn't realize what I was doing, I just did it. In fact, there was a long time where I would just stare at my turntable at home, I would sit there and just stare at it for like hours.

Asked about the difference between scratching and Turntablism, DXT responds, “I would say, the difference between me and my brothers, is based on my musical background, I was the first one to use the turntables in a virtuoso environment. The other guys were scratching. The difference between scratching in nightclub DJ booths and Turntablisim is I was a member of an ensemble I was able to manipulate the turntables in a way that was much more than just basic rhythms and create scratch compositions. I use the turntables to improvise with the band the difference is that you can practice on a record and it never changes if you can play with a band every night something is always different. Part of my idea came from John Coltrane and listening to Ella Fitzgerald who scatted improvisations over musical compositions.”

By 1981–1983 his dedication, had catapulted him into the spot of the hottest NYC DJ, spinning on weekends at the Roxy NYC’s first premiere hip-hop dance club, during that time he was approached by Bernard Zekri, on behalf of Jean Karakos’ French Record Label Celluloid. Soon after, he emerged as an internationally - DJ, touring Japan and Europe, and meet Bill Laswell who was also part of Celluloid’s production team. Bill had his own production company “Material,” and a band of the same and the two began to collaborate on projects, including “Material,” and most currently “Praxis,” which includes a heart-stopping array of talent including drummer Bryan "Brain" Mantia (Primus), guitarist Buckethead (briefly of Guns N' Roses), bassist/singer Bootsy Collins, and keyboardist Bernie Worrell.

DXT joined Hancock as keyboardist/vocalist and Turntablists of the Rock It band and Headhunters II. His disciplined approach to his craft has continued to be his hallmark as he forayed into engineering and production and was rewarded when TS Monk commissioned him to literally restore a long lost Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane show, recorded November, 1957 at Carnegie Hall.

The tape resurfaced after being lost for years in the basement of the Library of Congress, and documented Monk and Coltrane at a crucial point in their careers. After days of studying, DXT invented his own technique that he calls “forensic editing,” which includes a variety of traditional and non-traditional methods of restoration. “The sound of the recording was based on the technology of the time. I had to deal with it like a crime scene. Many of the problems are still there, my job was to make them inaudible,” DXT explained.

Not everyone agreed that the recording should be brought to today’s standards of quality. “The purists said don’t touch it, and I kept thinking I didn’t want to be remembered as the guy who messed up the Monk tapes. But Monk and Coltrane played jazz, not tape hiss,” said DXT. With his astute musical and jazz sensibilities, DXT made all the right decisions, because not only has Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane - At Carnegie Hall been meet with great applause and rave reviews, the technique he developed has received critical acclaim and he has now formed Transfer Master Studios that specializes in forensic editing, and analog tape to digital transfers. With a host of many accomplishments GrandMixer DXT’s work has become intrinsic part of hip-hop in film and music and he continues to work to elevate the culture.